NCAA Home Page - NCAA.org - University of Minnesota - Duluthhttp://www.ncaa.org/member-schools/university-minnesota-duluth
enCellular networkinghttp://www.ncaa.org/champion/cellular-networking
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden component__content--wysiwyg"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><figure class="media media-element-container media--view-mode--media_original"><img height="675" width="1200" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.41421em; width: 100%; height: 100%;" class="media-element file-media-original" typeof="foaf:Image" src="/sites/default/files/FC_Bauman_1.jpg" alt="" title="" /><figcaption class="field-item field field-name-field-description-caption field-type-text-long field-label-hidden even">Football was a driving force behind Jordan Bauman’s recovery from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer he tackled twice. Jordan (center) joins his father, Dave; mother, Debbie; brother, Matt; and sister-in-law, Katie, at a 2012 Minnesota Duluth football game. </figcaption></figure></p>
<p>O<span style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.41421em;">n the surface, the mentor/mentee relationship looks like any other: An established CEO and a recent college graduate exchange a half-dozen emails each month packed with job search guidance, networking opportunities and encouragement.</span></p>
<p>But for Jordan Bauman, who graduated in December from Minnesota Duluth with a degree in biology, and Milo Polovina, who attended the same university in 1975 and 1976 and is founder of a Chicago-area pharmaceutical company, the relationship isn’t about career ambitions or even a shared alma mater. It runs deeper, their connection tied together by the smallest, most basic component of life. </p>
<p><span style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.41421em;">Bauman was a high school junior in central Wisconsin when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph tissue. A second diagnosis — stage II — followed during the summer of 2012, when Bauman was preparing for his junior season as a defensive lineman on the Minnesota Duluth football team. He began his first cycle of chemotherapy as his teammates began their last week of fall camp. </span></p>
<p>“Day after day he stayed positive and never looked at it as, ‘Why me?’” says his brother, Matt Bauman, who is also the strength and conditioning coach at Minnesota Duluth. “He took the approach that: ‘It’s better me than somebody else because I know I can handle it. I know I’m going to get through it.’”</p>
<p>Treatment the second time around needed to be more aggressive. Bauman underwent four months of chemotherapy while still attending school full time. Then in February, he received a stem cell transplant. At the time, Bauman and Polovina were strangers. Months later, they learned the company Polovina founded likely played a role in Bauman’s stem cell transplant. Though they can’t know for sure, Polovina says it’s a “strong possibility” that Protide Pharmaceutical products were used to process Bauman’s cells. </p>
<p><span style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.41421em;">Bauman’s treatment wrapped up in late March 2013. Not more than two weeks after he left the hospital, Bauman was back at football practice, eager – maybe overly so – to catch up. “We didn’t get through warm-up, some light running, before his legs gave out,” Matt Bauman remembers. “He kind of laughed it off, but it was an eye opener.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.41421em;">Still, Jordan Bauman didn’t doubt he would return for his senior season in August. “(Football) was something that gave me a purpose, something to get back. I kept working and working with that date in mind.” </span></p>
<p>He beat cancer once and returned to football. </p>
<p>Then he did it again. </p>
<p>A cancer-free Bauman pulled on his uniform and joined his team in the season opener, a home game against Sioux Falls. </p>
<p><span style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.41421em;">Polovina heard Bauman’s story and wanted to learn more. They met at a football game last fall, and due to Bauman’s interest in science and Polovina’s experience in the field, the pair stayed in touch. </span></p>
<p>“He’s been pretty quiet about his circumstances,” Polovina says. “I’ve worked with him on applying for some grants, and I’ve encouraged him to tell his story because it’s quite incredible.”</p>
<p>Bauman helped conduct breast cancer research in the spring in Duluth and plans to return to Wisconsin to work as a lab technician. He hopes to attend medical school in a year – perhaps, he says, to help other cancer patients as an oncologist. </p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field-collection-container clearfix"><div class="field field-name-field-related-people field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div></div><ul class="tags__listing"><li class="tags__item"><a href="/champion" class="tags__link">Champion</a></li><li class="tags__item"><a href="/d2" class="tags__link">Division II</a></li><li class="tags__item"><a href="/themes/topics/champion-magazine" class="tags__link">Champion Magazine</a></li><li class="tags__item"><a href="/themes-topics/summer-2014" class="tags__link">Summer 2014</a></li><li class="tags__item"><a href="/themes-topics/profiles" class="tags__link">Profiles</a></li><li class="tags__item"><a href="/themes/topics/student-athletes" class="tags__link">Student-Athletes</a></li><li class="tags__item"><a href="/member-schools/university-minnesota-duluth" class="tags__link">University of Minnesota - Duluth</a></li><li class="tags__item"><a href="/sports/football" class="tags__link">Football</a></li></ul>Wed, 10 Sep 2014 13:20:07 +0000vcortez6431 at http://www.ncaa.orghttp://www.ncaa.org/champion/cellular-networking#commentsTransition from coaching teams to leading committees as smooth as icehttp://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/transition-coaching-teams-leading-committees-smooth-ice
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden component__content--wysiwyg"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><figure class="media media-element-container media--view-mode--three_by_four_hundred float-left"><img style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.41421em; " class="media-element file-three-by-four-hundred" typeof="foaf:Image" src="/sites/default/files/styles/three_by_four_hundred/public/field/image/stromme.jpg?itok=4TYaKquT&amp;c=29c9c801ac01d51b28243aca60fec948" alt="" /><figcaption class="field-item field field-name-field-description-caption field-type-text-long field-label-hidden even" style="max-width: 300px;">Karen Stromme won 440 games over 21 winning seasons as women’s basketball coach at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She is now assistant athletics director at the school.</figcaption></figure></p>
<p>Even today, nine years after coaching her final basketball game, Karen Stromme still gets asked if she misses coaching.</p>
<p>At first the senior woman administrator at Minnesota Duluth struggled to answer. Stromme missed the relationships with her student-athletes. She missed her teams and the victories that electrified players and coaches.</p>
<p>Stromme answers the question with purpose now, though. She still coaches teams, whether it’s as the new chair of the Division II Management Council or the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee representative at Minnesota Duluth. And there are still victories to savor, such as overseeing a successful tournament or watching her work on the Management Council be rewarded with a successful vote on key legislation.</p>
<p>“I just changed the definition of what a win is to me,” she said.</p>
<p>Her initial struggle is understandable. Stromme was 22, only months out of college, when she landed her first assistant coaching job. She was 23 when coach Linda Larson moved into an administrative role and asked Stromme to take over as UMD’s head coach.</p>
<p>She could’ve stayed in that spot comfortably. She won 440 games and never knew a losing season. She rose to president of the NAIA Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and chaired the USA Basketball Team Selection Committee for the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games.</p>
<p>Then in 2005, Stromme received an offer to take a much different path: Leave coaching and become Minnesota Duluth’s SWA. The thought was terrifying for a time. Stromme compares it to the feeling ski jumpers get when they peer over the tips of their sticks and see the ground waiting for them.</p>
<p>“I think that’s what defines most of us, is when you’re willing to take a jump and don’t know where you’re going to land,” she said. “But it’s not just risk-taking. It’s a calculated risk.”</p>
<p>At January’s NCAA Convention, as Stromme was preparing to chair her first Management Council meeting, she bumped into Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Chief Executive Officer Beth Bass. They shared a memory of a meeting nine years earlier, when Stromme made a comment that still sticks in Bass’ mind. “What was I thinking leaving coaching?” Stromme had told her.</p>
<p>This time, the memory made them laugh – because in the years that followed, Stromme discovered that athletics teams and administrative committees really weren’t all that dissimilar. They just look different.</p>
<p>She could see that last fall, when Minnesota Duluth volleyball coach Jim Boos walked up to Stromme after the Bulldogs hosted the Central Region Semifinals of the Division II Volleyball Championship. Minnesota Duluth fell 3-1 to Concordia-St. Paul to end its season, but Boos was still pleased.</p>
<p>“You made our student-athletes have an awesome time,” Stromme remembers Boos telling her, “and we were so proud to be at home, and we didn’t have to worry about anything.”</p>
<p>The memory makes Stromme smile. Because that was a win.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field-collection-container clearfix"><div class="field field-name-field-related-people field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div></div><ul class="tags__listing"><li class="tags__item"><a href="/about/resources/media-center" class="tags__link">Media Center</a></li><li class="tags__item"><a href="/d2" class="tags__link">Division II</a></li><li class="tags__item"><a href="/themes/topics/champion-magazine" class="tags__link">Champion Magazine</a></li><li class="tags__item"><a href="/member-schools/university-minnesota-duluth" class="tags__link">University of Minnesota - Duluth</a></li></ul>Mon, 30 Jun 2014 17:03:22 +0000vcortez5156 at http://www.ncaa.orghttp://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/transition-coaching-teams-leading-committees-smooth-ice#commentsBoerigter new DII Management Council chair; Stromme elected vice chairhttp://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/boerigter-new-dii-management-council-chair-stromme-elected-vice
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden component__content--wysiwyg"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Bob Boerigter, commissioner of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, and Karen Stromme, assistant athletics director at the University of Minnesota Duluth, have been elected chair and vice chair of the Division II Management Council.</p>
<p>Boerigter and Stromme will assume their new responsibilities at the conclusion of the January Convention. They were elected at the Oct. 15-16 Management Council meeting, and their selections were ratified Tuesday by the Division II Presidents Council. They will replace Ann Martin of Regis University (Colo.) and Bren Stevens of the University of Charleston (W.Va.).</p>
<p>In addition, eight new members were elected to the Management Council (terms will begin after the Convention in January). Their elections, along with two new members of the Presidents Council, will be announced next week.</p>
<h3>Boerigter</h3>
<p>Boerigter became the fourth full-time commissioner in MIAA history in September 2010.</p>
<p>He was previously director of athletics at Northwest Missouri State from 2001-10. In his time at Northwest, he served as the lead administrator for the department of athletics/HPERD, including recreational sports, club sports, campus recreation and the campus fitness center. He also was involved in development of the school’s $5 million football stadium renovation; completed refurbishing of the outdoor track facility with improvements totaling over $300,000, and helped implement the Fall Classic at Arrowhead football game, which established record attendance in Division II football (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2008).</p>
<p>He has served on the Division II Championships and Football Committees.</p>
<p>Before his time at Northwest Missouri State, Boerigter served as director of athletics at Hastings (Neb.) College. He is a member of the Hastings College Athletics Hall of Fame. In all, Boerigter has served as director of athletics at five institutions, also including Adams State College, Northwestern College and Whitworth College.</p>
<p>He is a graduate of Northwestern College. He also holds a master of arts degree from the University of Northern Colorado and a doctor of philosophy degree from the University of Utah.</p>
<h3>Stromme</h3>
<p>The winningest coach in Minnesota Duluth basketball history,<strong>Stromme</strong> is in her 26th year with the Bulldog staff and currently serves as the assistant athletic director and senior woman administrator.</p>
<p>Stromme spent 21 seasons directing the Bulldog women's basketball program before stepping down in May 2005 to take on a full-time administrative role in the athletics department. She compiled a 440-184 overall record (for a .705 winning percentage) and posted 21 consecutive winning seasons while also guiding the Bulldogs to 12 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference titles, four of a possible five NSIC Tournament championships, eight NCAA II North Central Regional playoff berths and seven appearances in the NAIA National Tournament.</p>
<p>She has extensive Division II committee experience, having previously served on the Management Council (representing the North Central Conference), the Committee on Infractions, the Membership Committee and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, among others.</p>
<p>Stromme, who first joined the Bulldog staff as an assistant women’s basketball coach in 1983-84, is a past president of the NAIA Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, past chair for the Kodak All-American Team Selection Committee and chairperson of the USA Basketball Team Selection Committee for the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games. She also was an assistant coach for Team East at the 1995 U.S. Olympic Festival and was among the official travel party for Team USA, which won the women’s basketball gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.</p>
<p>She is a member of both the Minnesota Girls Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame (Class of 2008) and the St. Olaf College Athletic Hall of Fame (Class of 1994).</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field-collection-container clearfix"><div class="field field-name-field-related-people field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div></div><ul class="tags__listing"><li class="tags__item"><a href="/about/resources/media-center/news" class="tags__link">News</a></li><li class="tags__item"><a href="/d2" class="tags__link">Division II</a></li><li class="tags__item"><a href="/themes/topics/management-council" class="tags__link">Management Council</a></li><li class="tags__item"><a href="/member-schools/university-minnesota-duluth" class="tags__link">University of Minnesota - Duluth</a></li></ul>Wed, 31 Oct 2012 04:00:00 +0000aassimon1925 at http://www.ncaa.orghttp://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/boerigter-new-dii-management-council-chair-stromme-elected-vice#comments